Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart
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Book Reviews of Earth Abides
Book Review: Humankind Strife to Survive!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had read this book several times in the past and before reviewing it I read it again.
His author was more than fifty years old when he wrote it. This maturity is perceptible all along this work.
The story is situated in a world devastated by a sudden pestilence that annihilates most of humankind. Taking into account the last SARS epidemic that jumped abruptly from China to Canada it doesn't look an impossible scenario.
This is the story.
Isherwood Williams comes down from an isolate spot in the mountains to discover an empty world. He starts searching for survivors all across USA, from California to New York and back again. He finds only isolate human cells, couples or trios, overwhelmed by catastrophe and in a near catatonic state.
Returns to his native town and contemplate with a certain scientific detachment the fading world around him.
Mr. Stewart intercalate brief vignettes describing what happens to dogs, cats, cattle, plants, roads, dams and bridges, contrasting them with Ish's daily experiences.
Little by little the story grip reader's attention and even if action is somehow slow, the book can't be put down.
Human cells began to draw near each other and a rather feeble structure starts growing up.
The author approaches universal questions about survival and extinction; civilization and savagery; social structure and anomie. He also examines religious values, ethics and life's ultimate sense.
This book gives the reader a lot of stuff to think about. A very enticing read!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Book Review: Stewart Abides
Summary: 5 Stars
Many of the previous reviewers state that they originally read this book a long time ago, and how it stuck with them over the years. For me, the pleasure of reading Earth Abides is a very recent event, but I do know that like those other reviewers, this will be a book that will stay with me for a long time.
Originally published in 1949, Earth Abides still reads fresh. It describes the life journey of the graduate student "Ish," a more intelligent that average, bookish, slightly passive young man who is one of the few human survivors of a catastrophic virus outbreak. Early on, he travels from one side of the former United States of America to the other, and back again. Living in the home of his parents, he slowly meets other survivors: some are compatible and eventually group together to become members of The Tribe, others who are not, and do not. Earth Abides is a tale of the survival of a man, of a group, and of a planet without the continuing influence and domination of human civilization.
This is fundamentally a book of journeys: a travel across post-apocalyptic America, within the remnants of the surviving San Francisco Bay area, of some of the Tribe's offspring attempting another cross-country journey, but most powerfully, it is the journey of Ish, as a survivor and young man, as a reluctant leader, as a torch-bearer of the hope of the re-establishment of the former Civilization, as a semi-god and The Last American, and finally as an old man who accepts that man will survive in new ways, not in the old ways, and that no matter what, that the Earth itself will abide.
Book Review: fascinating and memorable read
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book 35 years ago while in junior high. It captivated me. I pondered (as only an adolescent can) what I would do if I were Ish. What would I do if I came home from a trip into the mountains and found the world dead of a plague. How would I respond? What would I do? How would I survive? How would I cope?
I read it again when I was in high school and the same musing returned. I found it in my box of "things" several years later when I was 23, after I was married. I sat down that afternoon and read the entire book. Again it affected me - but in a different, more mature way. After I had children, I gave it to my daughter to read when she was 16. She found it to be a very fascinating read on the sociological impact on man of a devastating plague which leaves only a few scattered survivors. I have lent my copy to several people over the years and everyone who reads it finds the book to create emotion and ponder what they would do in such a situation.
The mystery and appeal of the book lies in the writer placing the reader into the conscience of the main character named Isherwood "Ish" Williams. There are several undertones within the book - one of which is the role of the reluctant leader, the second the "sacramental" image of the hammer. It also shows the tendancy of man to desire religion.
This book review, I hope, motivates someone to read a book that they may not have read by simply looking at the cover. You will be mesmerized by this well written classic... I guarantee! (I have been mesmerized by it 5 times now in the past 35 years)
Book Review: The end of the world as witnessed by a geographer
Summary: 4 Stars
This is such a great book on so many levels, it's a shame that it's being subjected to negative comments from readers who have totally missed key points about the story. First off, the protagonist, Ish, is a geographer, an informed and detached observer and not meant to be a hero or role model. Please don't ladle 21st-century dramatic or politically-correct expectations onto him. He's more real than that. Second, some reviewers here are complaining that Ish doesn't teach his fellow survivors to read etc. But in fact he tries throughout the second half of the novel to do so. They just won't. Ish gradually accepts that his fellow survivors aren't capable of hard intellectual work, that the torch of civilization is going to be mostly extinguished. Ish theorizes that probably the few, functioning survivors of the global plague are going to be doltish people. The sensitive, intelligent ones that survived went mad and were deemed unfit to join the little tribe of survivors. So Ish has the human clay that he has -- simple, uncurious, habit-driven people. He's constantly frustrated that he can't rouse them to live above the level they quickly sank to -- of hunting and gathering cans from supermarkets, talking about fixing up things but never doing it, etc. The whole novel is about the unstoppable descent of the last survivors into primitivism, despite having all of the knowledge of the world at their fingertips in the library.
The stopover in the south at the family of the "negroes" deserves to be called passe -- the book was published in 1949 after all.
Book Review: Worth Reading
Summary: 4 Stars
I heard about "Earth Abides" from someone reviewing "The Stand". In their review, they indicated "The Stand" was a one for one rip off of "Earth Abides". I decided to investigate this accusation and started reading an old edition of George Stewart's book. This book investigates what could potentially happen to human civilization if most people died from a highly contagious disease. The decay of civilization is seen through the eyes of the main character, Isherwood Williams.
First, what was my impression of the book? I enjoy reading sci-fi and have read my share of "end of the world" books including "Alas Babylon", "The Stand", "War Day", "The White Plague", and most recently "The Road". I did not enjoy the writing style of this author. It was not fluid and was archaic. However, the subject matter was interesting as was the thought the author put into the story. Ultimately, the author kept my attention.
How does this book compare to "The Stand"? They are two entirely different books. "The Stand" is more realistic in depicting the immediate aftermath of a plague. However afterwards, it becomes more of a "good versus evil" tale whereas "Earth Abides" seriously contemplates the state of civilization years after the plague. All in all, both books are worthy reads.
"Earth Abides" is at times is an awkward read. However, the story is interesting and well thought out. All in all, I recommend the book.